Trending
Dr Mark Dolan's Avatar

Dr Mark Dolan

@drdolan

Big book person, archaeologist (PhD in Ancient Cypriot boat models), Fulham FC fan, freelance writer and aspiring novelist. Unable to resist a pun.

871
Followers
3,399
Following
71
Posts
25.08.2023
Joined
Posts Following

Latest posts by Dr Mark Dolan @drdolan

Quite pleased with today's find of a first edition Normal People for the princely sum of ยฃ4

19.10.2025 17:57 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I say this as a guy with non-negligible insecurity about both height and body image, but I'd love to see the stats of the average height of regular gym-going men compared with overall population figures

28.07.2025 16:25 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I wonder whether Yorkshire Tea higher-ups refer to themselves as being in 'Proper tea management'

19.07.2025 11:26 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Lovely stuff, that's definitely one for the collection.

15.07.2025 13:14 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Very true, and actually another book I read this year

15.07.2025 11:26 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I don't know whether it's a symptom of my reading taste or something else entirely, but I seem to be coming across more books that feature a massive pyramidal building. So far I've got Malarkoi, The Three-Body Problem, and Y/N. Anyone got more to add to the collection?

15.07.2025 10:43 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Post image

Today's purple Connections category is appallingly weak, I mean, caf??

06.07.2025 18:23 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Text above a toilet that has been rubbed off so it now says "to let sue only"

Text above a toilet that has been rubbed off so it now says "to let sue only"

Very specific rental conditions

26.06.2025 14:22 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

'Doc, my heart hurts'

'pfft, hurts shmurts'

'yes, exactly!'

23.06.2025 19:06 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Moment of appreciation for the German for heart pain being "herzschmerz"

23.06.2025 19:04 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I always want to write longhand because it feels proper, authory, but then I'm met with the challenge of reading my handwriting

23.06.2025 14:50 ๐Ÿ‘ 2 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I enjoy the NYT puzzle Tiles, but when you boil it down to its basics - matching shapes and colours - it does feel like I'm playing a game for 3 year olds

13.05.2025 08:51 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Percival Everett's (current) publisher saying people hadn't heard of him until James. He was nominated for the Booker for The Trees, which was also a Pulitzer runner up. And it was UK indie publisher @influxpress.bsky.social who did the heavy lifting in the UK in celebrating/publishing him.

12.05.2025 19:15 ๐Ÿ‘ 111 ๐Ÿ” 14 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 13 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Off the back of a recent typo, I'm considering starting a petition to rename biographies 'lifetomes'

22.04.2025 20:37 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Friday: Your order will be delivered on Tuesday.

Today: Your order will arrive today!

Also Today: Your order will arrive on Wednesday.

21.04.2025 17:40 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Buying a laptop raiser for my desk because I'm very much in my 30s now

20.04.2025 12:37 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Post image

V exciting book post today! New Murata!

04.04.2025 11:29 ๐Ÿ‘ 5 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Preview
Balancing the books Publishing's problem with men

This is a fascinating, balanced and entertaining(!) piece on men in publishing from @samjordison.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/samj/p/b...

02.04.2025 11:05 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Ceci n'est pas un bateau: Reassessing terracotta boat models in Late Bronze and Iron Age Cyprus - ePrints Soton

I've realised I never put this here, but my PhD thesis is available in full here (eprints.soton.ac.uk/492373/) should anyone have any interest in what I spent a good five years faffing around with

26.03.2025 15:40 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Preview
Bringing a book into the world Some notes on the publication of Waterblack, a fantasy masterpiece - and a very heavy book.

open.substack.com/pub/samj/p/b...

A few words about the publication of Waterblack.

28.02.2025 16:22 ๐Ÿ‘ 18 ๐Ÿ” 6 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I successfully employed this trick when stuck in a loop with an automated answering machine for a delivery company, being finally put through when I told it in no uncertain terms to put me through to a f'ing human

30.01.2025 21:28 ๐Ÿ‘ 2 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Just seen someone post a "Cool London Travel Hack" on Instagram. The hack? The Tesco meal deal.

27.01.2025 09:39 ๐Ÿ‘ 6 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

It's January, it's wet and cold. I'm unemployed. I'm trudging morosely to the gym for a shower because our hot water tank has sprung a leak. Soon it will surely become apparent that I'm in a scandi noir film.

23.01.2025 10:55 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Yeah, that's about right.

01.01.2025 16:49 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
A can of violet sour beer by Vault City Brewing

A can of violet sour beer by Vault City Brewing

Discovered this beer today, and I know what's going to happen. I'm going to fall in love with it, I'll go to stock up, and it will be sold out, never to return

14.12.2024 14:37 ๐Ÿ‘ 7 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Elon Musk is just Kirk van Houten with money

05.12.2024 20:55 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 2 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
A copy of Anna Karenina with quotes from the book embossed on the upper cover

A copy of Anna Karenina with quotes from the book embossed on the upper cover

I like these Word Cloud Classics editions, I think they're nice, but the quotes on the cover of this are from a different translation than the text inside, and that is just an insane thing to do

28.11.2024 10:40 ๐Ÿ‘ 6 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

That works, but I was thinking 'Miss, whyyyyy'

22.11.2024 10:25 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
A photo of a number plate reading MI55 YYY

A photo of a number plate reading MI55 YYY

If this number plate is owned by a primary school teacher, it's genius. If not, it's a baffling choice.

22.11.2024 09:41 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Just had the quickest drop of excitement after seeing that a job at Robot Wars was actually a finance job at Robert Walters

19.11.2024 17:24 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0